DAB/DAB+ digital radio sales reach 75 million worldwide

Wednesday 12 June, 2019

WorldDAB’s latest market report reveals that by the end of Q4 2018, over 75 million consumer and automotive DAB/DAB+ receivers had been sold in Europe and Asia Pacific, up from 65 million in Q4 2017 with 4,733,000 having been sold in Australia.

The new data published by WorldDAB draws on multiple sources to give a comprehensive overview of the latest statistics on DAB receiver sales, road and population coverage, household penetration and the number of national stations on DAB/DAB+ compared to FM.

DAB is now firmly established as the core future platform for radio in Europe, a position underlined by a number of recent regulatory interventions.

On a pan-European level, the EECC directive adopted by the EU in December 2018 requires all new car radios in the EU to be capable of receiving digital terrestrial radio by the end of 2020.

In Australia, while the number of new cars (69%) equipped with DAB+ continues to grow, only 65% of the population is covered in 6 metropolitan and 1 regional areas while planning continues for other markets.

Italy has already put legislation in place to ensure that it complies with the directive by the start of 2020, while France, whose aggressive rollout of DAB continues to sweep across the country, has also triggered a receiver law requiring all new car radios released from June 2020 to include DAB+ digital radio capabilities.

In the UK, digital listening has reached a new record share of 56.4%, with over two thirds (71.6%) of all digital listening attributed to DAB.

Key findings from the WorldDAB report include:

In the Australia, 49% people have access to a DAB+ digital radio at home, at work or in the car in the five major metropolitan areas, as of Q1 2019

Over 11 million receivers have been sold in Germany

In Switzerland, 64% of all radio listening is via digital platforms

In Italy, 46% of new cars are now sold with DAB+, up from 32% in 2017

6 million receivers have been sold in Norway

In Australia, 69% of new cars are now sold with DAB+, up from 47% in 2017

DAB is also seeing significant activity across Asia, Middle East, and Africa.

Following the launch of the findings, WorldDAB president, Patrick Hannon, commented:“The last 12 months have been an exceptional period for DAB radio. The EU has adopted a directive requiring all new car radios to be capable of receiving digital terrestrial broadcasts; new markets such as France, Belgium and Austria are launching national DAB+ services and established markets including Germany, the UK, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy and Australia are reporting record levels of digital listening. In 2018, 10 million DAB receivers were sold worldwide. We expect this figure to be easily surpassed in the years ahead”.

The impressive growth and development of DAB will be highlighted at the upcoming WorldDAB Automotive 2019, which will take place in Turin on 20 June 2019.

This annual event seeks to promote the uptake of digital terrestrial radio in cars across Europe and will be attended by over 200 senior executives from across the radio and automotive industries, with representatives from both sectors discussing key issues affecting both automotive manufacturers and broadcasters.